The buying and selling of products or services over computer networks such as the Internet is commonly known as electronic commerce. The continued growth of the Internet has led to a vast increase in the amount of electronically-conducted trade over the years, as online shopping has even become the preferred shopping method for millions people. Today, virtually any type of product or service is available for purchase on the Internet via online merchants, retailers, and even individual sellers.
Unfortunately, the growth of electronic commerce has also led to a proliferation of available items for sale, making it sometimes difficult for consumers to efficiently search and locate a desired product. Generally, when a user conducts a search for a particular product using a search query, the most related and popular products are ranked and returned in a search result listing. Due to the large number of products offered for sale, however, the desired product may not be one of the most popular products and therefore may be scattered and buried among thousands of more popular search results. For example, a customer searching for a Tiger plush toy may enter “Tiger” or “Tiger toy” into a search query. The merchant system may return more popular search results such as “Tiger Woods Golf video game”, “Tiger Operating System”, or “Tiger Electric Guitar.” As a result, the user will undesirably have to either sort through the many more popular results, or provide a refined and more specific search query. In some cases, the user may not know the proper spelling or exact name of the desired item, leading to more frustration in performing a conventional product search.
Some online merchants sell products within several departments or categories, such as books, music, videos and DVDs, toy and games, electronics, etc. These categories are meant to assist potential customers in quickly narrowing a search for a particular product. Prior to entering the search query, the customer must select the appropriate department for the desired product. Often times, however, the customer is unsure what category a particular product may fall under. As such, a method and system for allowing users to quickly and efficiently search and locate a particular product is needed.